“Took me a while to get around to trying this tea. Bought it quite a while ago. Didn’t gongfu it. Brewed it western style. It is a fairly pleasant tasting tea with light roasted notes, very...”
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From Dragon Tea House

Ben Shan Oolong tea, lightly oxidized, comes from Anxi County, Fujian Province. Ben Shan Oolong tea is from its own variety, one of the 12 grown in the tea-rich region. The branch are strong and heavy, the peduncle are bright and thin it look like “the node of the bamboo” but have a little tine, the color of liquor is orange. The shape of the leaf is ellipse, and the surface is ridgy. It has a similar taste as Tie Guan yin but a light, floral, orchid flavour.
Se Zhong oolong, literally colored species oolong, are planted in the south area of Fujian province. Ben Shan was discovered by a guy called Yuan Xing in 1870, thus it has another name, Yuan Xing species. It is now one of the four most popular oolong in Anxi. There about 16,000 acres of Ben Shan tea gardens in Xi Ping, Hu qiu, Peng Lai, Sahng Qing, Chang Keng and Lu tian town.

Our latest harvest of supreme Ben Shan is the best grade of Ben Shan from An Xi. The supreme grade has a emerald color, fresh, invigorating orchid flavor with a sweet, lingering finish.

2 Tasting Notes

The water has to be really hot, otherwise the tea stays completely blank with no taste.
Although the scent in the aroma cup was very weak, the taste is good. At first it seemed very weak, and then developed a flowery/fruity taste in the throat. It’s not the best Ben Shan oolong I’ve tried (too weak for my taste) but at this price it’s very interesting.

I’ve also tried to brew it in a big teapot (sometimes with weak tea it’s better to have everything in the same cup :-) : it’s great for an everyday tea.

Preparation

Took me a while to get around to trying this tea. Bought it quite a while ago. Didn’t gongfu it. Brewed it western style. It is a fairly pleasant tasting tea with light roasted notes, very light. The leaves are green and do not look roasted but that is what I taste.

I brewed this once in an 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and 190 degree water for 3 min.